Unusual manmade landmarks on Bay Area hiking trails that you don't want to miss

By Greg Keraghosian

on February 8, 2018 4:00 AM

College ruins on Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve

Update on 8/16/18: Permits to access the preserve are unavailable while public-access upgrades are made. The amenities are expected to open in spring 2019.

Bear Creek Preserve, five miles south of Los Gatos, isn’t completely open to the public yet – you need a day permit to visit, but that’s easily obtained online with about two days’ notice. Aside from the natural beauty, visitors can spot the fenced-off remains of Alma College, a former Jesuit seminary that lasted from 1934 to 1969.

The Midpensinsula Regional Open Space District plans to demolish some of the college’s remains in the next two years while preserving the library and 1909 chapel as it prepares to fully open the preserve to the public.

Hike on the western side of the island along Perimeter Road and you’ll come across this impressive piece of old-timey machinery. The rock crusher dates to the 1930s and stands next to an old serpentine quarry that supplied rock used to build roads on the island.

The crusher looks surprisingly intact for something that hasn’t been used in decades, though it had a close call in 2008 when a large wildfire broke out on the island and the fire reached the crusher’s wooden insides. Tiburon’s fire battalion chief saved the crusher by unleashing fire retardant from a hose into the chute.

Other than an informational display panel, there’s nothing to tell you that you’re hiking on the former grounds of the Grande Vista Sanitarium in the hills above Richmond. Except for the curiously out-of-place palm trees. The Belgum Trail in Wildcat Canyon is named after the man who created the institution in 1914 to treat mental disorders.

According to the Oakland Museum of California, Belgum’s brochure read, “To insure our guests an abundance of fresh, wholesome, nourishing food, so essential to the restoration of health, a select purebred dairy is maintained, also a poultry plan, an apiary, a fruit orchard, vegetable gardens, conservatories, private spring water system, etc.”

Belgum planted palm trees around the estate that remain to this day. He died putting out a brush fire around the property in 1948, and after his family took over, the sanitarium had closed by the mid-60s.

Ruins of sanitarium, Wildcat Canyon
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The summit pole at Mission Peak

Great selfie opportunities will make people do amazing things – such as hike three miles with a 2,000-foot elevation gain and no shade. Climbing up the graffiti-and-pipe-covered pole for a panoramic view atop Mission Peak in Fremont is the reward for what can be a hot, rocky hike, but it’s become so popular that locals have complained of litter, noise, and no parking spaces. Because of the complaints, weekend parking permits are now required around the preserve.

Hike up the steep incline of the Eagle Rock Trail within Little Basin in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and from the 2,488-foot summit you’ll spot a boarded-up fire lookout tower that’s been abandoned for years. While the tower is fenced off and not to be approached, that doesn’t stop some curious hikers and bikers from hopping it and snapping some up-close photos. But the more rewarding photo is the 360-degree panorama you can take from the trail.

A relic of a possible nuclear war that never came, Nike missile site SF-51 has gone from military defense to graffiti canvas since it was abandoned in 1974. The site was one of 11 in the Bay Area meant to detect nuclear-armed Soviet bombers and launch missiles in defense. Now part of the GGNRA, the ruins make for an educational stop on a hike of the Sweeney Ridge Trail.

While it may look like trespassing, hiking up to "Industrial City" sign is quite legal and involves an easy two-mile loop. The sign is along Letters Trail on Sign Hill, and you can enjoy a lovely, sweeping view of the area while you’re up there.

South San Francisco isn't quite as industrial as it used to be —it's home to Genentech now. But the sign is still a worthy piece of local lore, born the same year (1923) as the much glitzier Hollywood sign to the south.

Hike next to the South San Francisco sign
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Presidio Pet Cemetery

This final resting place for hundreds of beloved pets can be found near the Presidio Promenade Trail. The cemetery traces back to the 1950s, when the Presidio’s military residents began interring their dogs, cats, and other animal friends. There are 424 headstones counted, with such epitaphs as “Skipper, the best damn dog we ever had,” and “Marc the Cat … chicken connoisseur.”

The cemetery lies under the new Presidio Parkway viaduct, and it’s fenced off to help preserve the headstones. But visitors can still get close enough to get a good look and say "Who's a good boy?"

Thanks to a recent $40 million restoration effort, you can still walk through much of the hospital that treated some of the 1 million mostly Asian immigrants who stayed on Angel Island from 1910 to 1940, seeking passage to the United States. The hospital’s exterior is covered with foliage, and the rooms inside are empty but offer lots of room to wander.

Most visitors to Sunol see it as a wild-open hilly wonderland, but outlaw bandits in the 1850s likely saw it differently. The small, wide rock fortress on a ridge above the headwaters of Alameda Creek was “most definitely a hideout,” historians say. The manmade rock formation was perfectly located to rob carriages hauling booty through Niles Canyon during the Gold Rush.

The Chronicle’s Tom Steinstra says it takes “a bit of detective work” to find the fortress, but it can be done with some topographical-map reading. He gives these instructions: “Use the trailhead for Little Yosemite, cross the bridge, and take Camp Ohlone Road for a mile to Little Yosemite (overlook of miniature falls on right). Then continue a half-mile to Backpack Road. Turn left on Backpack and climb about 300 feet (if you reach the junction of the McCorkle Trail/Ohlone Wilderness Trail, you’ve gone about a quarter mile too far).”

As if hiking underneath a volcano isn’t unusual enough in the Bay Area, there’s also a woman-made trail you can walk at this East Bay preserve. Helena Mazzariello created the largest of the labyrinths here in 1989. You can gaze down at the labyrinth from the top of a quarry.

Life would ideally supply us with a beer house at the end of every hike, but there really is such a reward for those fresh off a stroll through Muir Woods – though non-members can only do so three days a year. The Tourist Club is within the German-styled Mt. Tamalpais alpine lodge, nestled among the redwoods. It’s easily accessible by hiking the Dipsea Trail for two miles.

If you’re not a club member, there are three events open to the public that offer ample amounts of beer: the 2018 dates are Maifest (May 20), Sommerfest (July 15), and Kinderfest (Sept. 16). Visit the club’s website to a buy a ticket.

The Point Bonita Trail in the Marin Headlands is just a half-mile hike. But it’s a steep one that leads through a tunnel to a suspension bridge and what was the last manned lighthouse on the California coast. Just make sure you plan ahead to enter the lighthouse: it’s open Saturday through Monday.

Point Bonita Lighthouse
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The less-visited Sutro Bath ruins on the beach

The remains of Adolph Sutro’s 19th-century swimming wonderland attract tourists and Lands End hikers alike. But you can find chunks of more isolated ruins by going off the Coastal Trail and hiking down to Mile Rock Beach, with its lovely stone labyrinth. Picnic on the shore next to the ruins painted with graffiti – we saw one reading, “R.I.P. Robin Williams” soon after his death.

The less-visited Sutro Bath ruins on the beach
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Point Reyes Shipwreck

This one technically isn’t part of a hike, as it’s behind a market in Tomales Bay in the town of Inverness. But it couldn’t be much closer to the vast hiking opportunities of Point Reyes National Seashore and a small trail does lead to it. The fishing boat became a local sensation after running aground, and the photographers who loved it helped preserve it. Unfortunately, the shipwreck isn’t what it used to be: a mysterious fire in 2016 badly damaged it.

Point Reyes Shipwreck
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Mount Davidson cross

Hike up to the highest natural point in San Francisco and you’ll find a 103-foot cross with a story behind it. Originally dedicated in 1934 and lit by President Franklin D. Roosevelt via telegraph, the cross was the subject of a long legal dispute in the 1990s over its status as a public religious symbol. It was eventually bought at auction by an Armenian American organization and ever since has been the site of the annual April 24 remembrance for the 1.5 million victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, with a memorial plaque at its base.

Not even the park, located near Pescadero, knows the exact origin of what is now a long gravel road atop a ridge, though it says the airstrip has been there since 1955 at the latest. Says the park’s website, “It was allegedly one of three emergency landing fields associated with a squadron of P-40 fighters based in Half Moon Bay during the opening months of World War II.”

Regardless of how it got here, the hike up here does pack a sweet view.

Abandoned airstrip at Butano State Park
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John Muir’s gravesite

This has been a sort of renegade hike for fans of the great naturalist that is now opening up to everyone. Muir, the grandfather of America’s national parks, is buried in a family cemetery in Martinez one mile south of what is the John Muir National Historic Site visitor center. The site is managed by the National Park Service but surrounded by private homes, and despite being off limits to visitors, people have been making pilgrimages there for decades.

At last, that’s changing. The Park Service made an arrangement to begin limited van tours to the gravesite in December, and this year it’s opening up to limited numbers of pedestrians as well, on weekends and only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The site is shaded by pear trees and lies next to a creek.

John Muir’s gravesite
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The mysteriously abandoned car wreck on Mt. Tam

About 350 feet below curvy Ridgecrest Boulevard (pictured) on the northern side of Mt. Tamalpais is a rusted wreck with GM on the engine block whose origins may never be known for sure. A KQED inquiry three years ago found that the car was lying there before the nearby trail was made in the 1970s, and that it appears to be a 1941 Pontiac that was pushed over a cliff by some local rabble-rousers.

Take an urban hike on the Filbert Steps for this piece of San Francisco film noir lore. The Malloch Building was where Humphrey Bogart hid out at Lauren Bacall’s apartment in “Dark Passage,” and you may still find a cutout of Bogart in the window. Also go here for Alfred Du Pont’s 40-foot murals on the building’s outside.

Walk along the unpaved road between the museum and Wolf House ruin within the state park that bears Jack London’s name in Sonoma County, and you’ll find a knoll with a large rock. Under that rock, which is a remnant of the Wolf House, are the novelist’s ashes, as well as those of his wife, Charmian.

Gravesite of Jack London at Jack London State Historic Park ...photo-2407579.178120 - |ucfirst

Buena Vista Park tombstones

Proof that recycling in San Francisco goes way back: One hilly section of the city’s third-largest park includes some unusually marked gutters. They’re headstones reclaimed from San Francisco cemeteries after the bodies were moved outside the city in the early 1900s. The gutters were made in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration.

Update on 8/16/18: Permits to access the preserve are unavailable while public-access upgrades are made. The amenities are expected to open in spring 2019.

Bear Creek Preserve, five miles south of Los Gatos, isn’t completely open to the public yet – you need a day permit to visit, but that’s easily obtained online with about two days’ notice. Aside from the natural beauty, visitors can spot the fenced-off remains of Alma College, a former Jesuit seminary that lasted from 1934 to 1969.

The Midpensinsula Regional Open Space District plans to demolish some of the college’s remains in the next two years while preserving the library and 1909 chapel as it prepares to fully open the preserve to the public.